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Stop Windows Update from Automatically Restarting Your PC

If you like to keep your applications open and running on your screen, you’ve probably come back to your PC and noticed that Windows Update had rebooted you, losing everything that was open on your screen. Sure, you can temporarily disable the automatic reboot if you happen to be sitting in front of the PC, but what happens when you were away when it popped up?

That’s not the only annoyance, but you can stop Windows Update from hijacking the sleep button if you need to:

As an avid user of the Sleep function on my laptop, I’ve been more than irritated with Windows 7 or Vista’s habit of changing the Sleep/Shutdown button into an “Install Updates and Shut Down” button whenever there are updates from Windows Update.

After the last time I accidentally clicked this stupid button when I just wanted to enter sleep mode, I decided to look for a solution:

Download Registry Hack

Unzip the file and double-click on the StopHijackingMySleepButton.reg file to activate the registry hack. You shouldn’t have to restart anything, as the changes will happen immediately. There’s also a registry file to uninstall the hack.
I believe there is a similar option for XP, but I’m guessing the key is located in a different place.

We’ve all been at our computer when the Windows Update dialog pops up and tells us to reboot our computer. I’ve become convinced that this dialog has been designed to detect when we are most busy and only prompt us at that moment.

The real problem comes into play when Windows gets tired of reminding us and says that the computer is going to reboot in 5 minutes, and the only way you can prevent the inevitable is to temporarily disable Windows Update.

There’s a couple of ways that we can disable this behavior, however. You’ll still get the prompt, but it won’t force you to shut down.

I don’t believe this trick will work for XP Home or Vista Home users, according to the documentation that I’ve read. You’ll have to resort to the temporary disabling measuresinstead.

Downloadable Registry Hack

Just download and extract the registry hack files and double-click on WUNoAutoReboot.reg to disable automatic reboots. The other script will remove the hack.

If you’ve ever accidentally triggered a system shutdown and then suddenly changed your mind, here’s the simple trick to tell Windows to abort the shutdown and let you get back to goofing off.

So there you are, minding your own business and wasting time on Facebook, when Windows pops up a message telling you that you need to reboot right now… and you accidentally choose Restart now.

To prevent Windows from shutting down on you, just type in shutdown /a into the Start menu search box, and then use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut key combination to run the command as administrator—of course, if you’ve already disabled UAC you can just hit the Enter key.

A MASSIVE botnet that has been gathering steam over the past few weeks is threatening to ravage the web, security researchers have warned.

A botnet uses collections of devices like wifi routers or smart webcams which have been hacked to collaboratively send surges of data to servers - causing them crash, disrupt services and ultimately go offline.

Check Point security found that attacks were coming from many different types of devices and many different countries Check Point security found that attacks were coming from many different types of devices and many different countries

Around this time last year, a similar attack called the Mirai botnet wiped out the internet across the US, targeting mostly the East Coast.

by Kirstin Fawcett From phishing schemes to a thief pilfering your passport, there are plenty of ways to fall victim to identity theft. And now, participating in Facebook quizzes is one of them. As ABC News reports, the seemingly harmless surveys that populate your feed could wind up providing unscrupulous hackers with the answers to your online security questions.

Popular Facebook quizzes often ask users to answer a series of sharable personal questions, ranging from the name of their pet to their birth city. Some people see them as a fun way to bond with friends, or a way to make new ones. But as one local police department in Massachusetts recently noted on Facebook, many of these queries are similar—if not identical—to security questions used by banks and other institutions.

"Please be aware of some of the posts you comment on," the Sutton Police Department in Massachusetts wrote in a cautionary message. "The posts that ask what was your first grade teacher, who was yo…

What Is Bad Rabbit Ransomware?On Tuesday, Oct. 24, a new strand of ransomware named Bad Rabbit appeared in Russia and the Ukraine and spread throughout the day. It first was found after attacking Russian media outlets and large organizations in the Ukraine, and has found its way into Western Europe and the United States. The initial installer masquerades as a Flash update but is believed to be an updated version of NotPetya, since the infection chain and component usage is identical. Interestingly, this malware contains a list of hardcoded Windows credentials, most likely to brute force entry into devices on the network. According to SonicWall Capture Labs Threat researchers, Bad Rabbit spreads using the SMB protocol within Windows. We should think of it as a bug fix maintenance release of NotPetya (within EternalBlue method of propagation removed). The purpose of using the SMB protocol is to spread laterally across an organization. Are SonicWall Customers Protected from Bad Rabbit?Y…